


Roman And Logan's Dark Strange Son

by snowezrogers



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Abuse, Adoption, Anxiety Attacks, Blackmail, Blood and Injury, Child Murder, Corruption, Divorce, Domestic Violence, Dragons, Eating Disorders, Emotional Manipulation, Fainting, Flashbacks, Food, Forced Marriage, Genderbending, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Kidnapping, Manipulation, Misunderstandings, Muteness, Near Death, Near Death Experiences, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, Non-Graphic Violence, Past Abuse, Past Domestic Violence, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Relationship(s), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pregnancy, Shapeshifting, Shock, Sympathetic Deceit Sanders, Tattoos, Trauma, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-03-05 15:38:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 19,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18831598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowezrogers/pseuds/snowezrogers
Summary: Roman and Logan accidentally adopt a snake son just simply to spite Patton.I wrote the full version because I have no impulse control.





	1. Well, I Can Be Petty If You Can Be Dismissive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan And Roman set out to try to make things right, with only _slight_ amounts of spite and pettiness toward their fellow light sides.
> 
> Crossposted on my tumblr [here](https://snowe-zolynn-rogers.tumblr.com/post/184882533758/roman-and-logans-dark-strange-son-pairings).

Arriving back to the Mind Palace after a debate was usually routine. Roman almost immediately changed from his princely outfit into sweats and a tank top, determined to sleep the day away with no quest ahead, hopefully. Virgil immediately bolted to the couch to take his almost-noon nap. Logan had went back to making the coffee and Roman was making breakfast. Deceit, albeit present at the debate, had returned to his room that was slowly growing farther and farther from the dark side of the Mindscape every day.

“No wonder he’s no good at trying to prove a good point! He didn’t even speak up this time! He’ll never get accepted this way!” Patton finally began snapping, obviously in reference to Deceit, the only side not present. Logan and Roman shared a look that quite obviously meant they would talk later but they didn’t respond past humming their assurance to the moral side. After breakfast, the two went to the debate hall up on the third floor of the Mind Palace and both checked to lock the door.

“You wanted to talk?” Roman asked him.

“You did too I assume. And yes, I do. Deceit didn’t have a chance to get a word in edgewise during this debate and he ended up not being able to even voice his opinion at all.” Logan explained.

“Because Patton kept interrupting him and Virgil kept insulting him.” Roman sat on the desk closest the door, obviously lamenting their inability to even hear the deceptive side’s ideas.

“Should we ask his opinion then?” Logan offered.

“Absolutely. I know just where his room is. I can send a hawk with a message.” Roman exclaimed, rather proud of his idea.

“Or perhaps something that doesn’t prey on snakes.” Logan corrected quickly.

“Ah, of course! No need to scare our scaly friend. I shall send a messenger dragon in place of a hawk!” Roman beamed and he snapped a small dragon into existence on his arm, rubbing its head against his neck as it awaited to be told where to go while Roman wrote up a note to stick in its message keeper on its left leg.

“To the yellow door in the grey area. It’s the only room there, Reign, you should be able to find it.” Roman instructed the dragon and let him out the window on the wall. Reign gave a final rub on Roman’s neck and then a small fiery breath of seemingly his way of saying yes.

“Reign?”

“He’s the royal messenger dragon, he needed a royal name. It was that or Knight. And Knight is going to be his son when the new round of dragon eggs hatch. If he’s heired a boy, of course.”

“Your tactics never cease to fascinate me.” Silence passed as they waited for the dragon to return.

“So how long before Virgil and Patton think we’re having _too much fun_ up here?” Roman suddenly asked.

“If you’re referring to intercourse, they’ve probably already noticed and made a reference to it. I can see why they never visit this room for this specific reason. Though, we should leave before they make any assumptions. If anything, your pet dragon will probably take a bit if he’s going to the grey area.” The logical side explained.

“Just keep an eye out. You were here when I sent him with a message so he might come back to you instead.” Roman unlocked and left the room, Logan leaving after leaving the window and door open for the dragon.

And lo and behold Reign came back an hour later seeming thoroughly happy having visited Deceit. He came straight to Logan, who had Roman taking a nap with his head on his lap while he read a book. The dragon took initiative to fly downstairs from the third floor to the first, enter the living room, and land on Logan’s knees, pushing his muzzle against Logan’s book to gain his attention.

“Oh hello, Reign. Did you return with a message?” The dragon seemed to chirp and raised his left foot, showing him that he did indeed have a message. Logan opened the top of the message holder, as he’d seen Roman do, and he took out the paper inside. Just as he did, Roman began to wake up at the feeling of movement.

“Oh Reign, you’re back.” Roman reached to pet the dragon as Logan read through the messages, both Roman’s and Deceit’s.

“What’s that, guys?” Patton asked cheerily.

“Probably a notice that the new dragon eggs began hatching in the Spider Woods.” Roman made up the excuse so easily while still half asleep Logan had to admit that he might be impressed. Patton visibly shivered and didn’t ask further. So Logan went with the dragon thing.

“No, the dragons haven’t hatched yet but they said that they should hatch today around dinner so you should go check them. I think I’ll accompany you.” Logan continued the excuse with the information of Deceit saying it was okay to meet up in the Imagination at six.

“Really, Logan? You wanna go in the Spider Woods to see dragons?” Virgil asked.

“I mean, why not? I’ve got nothing else to do today. Plus dragons sound pretty cool to me.” Logan told him. Roman was busy coddling Reign, petting him and letting the dragon curl up and fall asleep on him. The remainder of the day was spent going over ideas of what to and not to say before packing up food and leaving to meet Deceit near Spider Woods in the Imagination.


	2. Spider Woods Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman and Logan meet Deceit near Spider Woods to talk.

Upon arriving to the meeting site, Roman and Logan found what they assumed was Deceit currently quite deep in the forest, though seeing yellow in a dragon egg forest wasn’t hard given all dragon’s eggs were black. As it seemed, Deceit was attempting to care for a new egg, nesting it.

He only stopped when he realized it was past six, though Roman and Logan didn’t mind to wait a bit, seeing him take care of a lone dragon egg was already cute enough. Deceit seemed tense and, if the hands currently balled in his yellow flannel was anything to say about it, he was stressed too.

It was quite obviously him, snakely features and all, but the different clothes made him seem so different. Black jeans with lace up sides all the way up, a yellow flannel tied around his hips, a black crushed velvet top with flowy bell sleeves, and yellow and black sneakers with quite obvious heels in them.

He sure held up to his aesthetic. Logan sputtered at first and then Roman led straight in, despite Deceit fidgeting in quite obvious distress to know why he’d been called here.

“Alright. To ease any stress, we aren’t mad at you. Like, at all. We asked you here because we wanted to hear your side of the debate today since we couldn’t figure out what your opinion was.” Deceit looked a bit shocked at Roman’s explanation.

“Oh…um…It was stupid anyway.” Logan grabbed his hand seeing him about to leave.

“No opinion is a stupid opinion unless it doesn’t pertain to the conversation.” Logan immediately assured him.

“I don’t know, it’s dumb.” The deceptive side seemed antsy to not share, maybe protective? Then it seemed to dawn on him. Maybe trust issues? Those might make sense. Trust probably wasn’t common among dark sides, and with his current housing situation, trust must run far down below zero in Deceit’s world.

“So. Wanna have dinner with us and talk about your opinions?” Roman asked him. Deceit seemed to settle with that. Maybe trusting they’d listen? Logan had a hundred scenarios at once of what he could possibly be thinking, none of which he spoke aloud. But they all settled onto the blanket Roman had decidedly brought and Deceit seemed to work up nerve to share his opinion.

“Thomas is being overly selfless again. He’s giving up what’s his for other people. Soon it might be his entire self-preservation if he keeps going like this.” Deceit finally managed to explain. The way his eyes shone tears said it was completely true.

“You’re not…” Roman reached his hands to grasp Deceit’s shoulders, making sure they didn’t slip through, that he wasn’t fading.

“No. Not yet. But if it keeps going this way it might happen.” He sounded teary. Logan wanted nothing more than to hug him and tell him he could cry but he didn’t want to overstep. Expressing emotion and explaining emotion wasn’t his forte, nor did he do it very well. He could let Roman handle that for now.

“We need to do something about that then. Make sure you won’t.” Logan determined.

“You…You could?” Deceit asked, near incredulously.

“As much as possible. We could incorporate your ideas into our debates with Patton and Virgil. It’s no harm to change the points of our arguments for a while if it keeps you from fading long enough to figure out what to do.” Logan assured him.

“You don’t have to.” The shortest trait wiped his eyes and kept tears from falling over. This obviously meant a lot to him.

“You’re right. We want to.” Roman agreed. And Logan couldn’t agree more. They spent a total of three hours listening to Deceit’s opinion, both encouraging him to keep going so they could learn more on his side of the debate both that morning and in the past.

It all boiled down simply to, don’t over-give and to make sure Thomas could take care of himself, make sure Thomas didn’t push too far. It was reasonable. The explanation being so long, however, immediately gave the impression of some kind of past abuse. It could really be a toss up of any kind, Logan didn’t know any details and it seemed Deceit didn’t want them to.

There were also very clear trust issues that they got the simple explanation that someone he trusted had left before. This wouldn’t stand, Logan determined. The other hour of the conversation was him gently convincing Deceit to take it easy, make sure he didn’t overstress himself. And Roman and Logan went about formulating a plan in the debate room again.

“We could have him stay in one of our rooms to keep an eye on him. So we can make sure he doesn’t start fading.” Logan suggested. He was far beyond stressed. If their Deceit faded then their Self-Preservation faded too. There may be no saving him if he began fading, there was only hoping at that point that he could come back from it.

“He’d have to stay in there a lot so he won’t be caught by Patton or Virgil. He might get corrupted. It wouldn’t be any better.” Roman shot the idea down.

“We could make him a room.” Logan suddenly suggested, far too excited and ended up slamming his hands onto the desk of the debate chair he sat at.

“A-A room? They’d notice!”

“Not if we said it’s ours to share. There’s already that old extra room across from ours. Remember? You made it a while back for one of those Shorts characters before they went to live in your kingdom.” Logan poked his head to remember. It seemed to come back to him now.

“Oh yeah, Remy’s old room! That’s perfect. We could totally do that!” Logan smirked seeing that he’d finally seen sense.

“Let’s get to work. We need him close to us to keep an eye on him and we better get it done as quickly as possible.” Logan alerted him.


	3. Gaining Trust And New Places

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deceit gets showed his new room next to Roman and Logan’s. (aka they officially ‘adopt’ him)

It had taken two and a half weeks to gain Deceit’s trust enough to be let into his room and another week and a half to fully gain his trust, all while knowing full well they’d better get him into the yellow room before the next debate. Though it didn’t happen for a while, it was bound to. Usually this happened, a crisis and then calm for a few months until the next one. Hopefully it would be a long enough break between crises to let them get Deceit into his new room they’d set up.

Yellow, black, and gold furniture Roman had summoned and painted himself. Decor and room additives Logan had added. Yellow bright ceiling stars, a second bed curtain on the bedposts for extra privacy, fairy lights on the headboard. The more they learned, the more they added, personalizing the room as much as need be. But not overwhelming it with things neither could write off to Virgil and Patton as their current interest.

When Patton and Virgil inevitably asked questions on the color choices and reasoning, they simply explained that gold was the color Roman had chosen and black was the color Logan had chosen. Yellow had been a ’funny coincidence‘ of being Deceit’s color since it was the only primary color left and Virgil had the color purple, which their colors combined to. They’d made the room because they wanted to ‘sync up the left and right brain’.

Patton and Virgil had been satisfied with this answer well enough and they’d backed off and eventually lost interest in watching them set the room up. Now it was time to try to move Deceit in. A tedious process, they didn’t want to overstep and make him think they were forcing him from his room, they weren’t. They just wanted him somewhere safe where they could take care of him.

So here Roman sat, Dante, a black boa constrictor, slithering across him and petting the good boy’s head. Logan had finished feeding Edgar and was currently allowing the white ball python to climb around on his arm as he meant to put him away but had inadvertently gotten turned into a snake climbing post.

The indigo and silver scales that covered Logan’s hands were given little attention, as we’re the red and gold ones on Roman’s hands. Deceit’s scales were better, they’d both conceded to determine a while ago. Said snakelike trait was currently placing Sunny, his gold dust striped corn snake, back in his enclosure. He came to help Logan get Edgar back in his enclosure with Sunny, and Dante following a moment or so later.

“You should both leave, your hands are too scaley.” He tried to urge them out.

“We have something to show you, actually.” Roman began.

“What?” Deceit asked.

“We have a surprise for you in the Mind Palace, Dee.” Logan clarified.

“O-Okay.” The shortest side let them lead him back to the Mind Palace and to the upstairs. It was nearly two in the morning, Patton had long since gone to bed having likely passed out in his room watching Parks and Rec, and Virgil’s insomnia medication usually meant he passed out around midnight.

“I’m going to cover your eyes. Is that okay?” Logan alerted him and let Deceit answer a rather meek 'yeah’ before doing so. He guided him to the bedroom and Roman opened the door to the yellow room. Logan let his hands down the minute Deceit was standing in front of the open doorway.

Bright yellow ceiling stars lit up the room like the night sky, the bed curtains open to show the inside and the fairy lights. Tiny flowers on the desk and several Dreamworks posters, much to Romans beginning dismay that the snakelike side preferred Dreamworks over Disney.

Despite its original gold/yellow/black tone appearance, the room danced with deep blues and whites Deceit’s obviously favorite character, Jack Frost. Deceit’s eyes blew wide and he looked back at Logan and then to Roman as if he wasn’t sure who did this.

“You two did this?“ He asked.

“We wanted to make sure you don’t start fading. To do that, we can’t have you an hour’s trek from us. So we thought we’d make you a room here that you can stay in. So we can be sure.“ Roman assured him.

“You made a room just so you could take care of me?”

“Of course. My other option was going to be having you stay in my castle in the Imagination, but that seemed too far away to be able to check on you quickly.“ Roman explained. Without any further confirmation, the shortest side flung himself to hug them. That night they spent with him, both laying on either side of their dark, strange son, both continuing work from that day until they could fall asleep nearing four in the morning.

The next morning went just as they’d thought it would. Roman made breakfast while Logan made coffee, as Patton usually slept in and Virgil woke up in a few hours groggy and still tired from his medication. It was a game of dodging. Deceit woke up only an hour after them, at nine in the morning, and two hours before Virgil usually woke up at eleven. This allotted time to them all helping to make breakfast for the other two sleeping sides to wake up to.

They knew, of course, of Deceit’s aversion to food, something they’d both deemed was probably a form of an eating disorder they didn’t want to press. But they both were determined to help him overcome it. So, after getting a list of anything their ‘son’ was allergic to, they immediately reformed the recipes they wanted to make. No chocolate was easy enough and no dairy products was an allergy Roman also shared, something they normally left out and had no issue continuing to do so. But eggs, Deceit apparently loved eggs.

So that’s just what they did. They ended up making french toast roll-ups, eggs, non-dairy pancakes, and sausage. Deceit obviously thought they were going a bit over the top until he realized they were cooking for five people, not just three then he seemed to accept it and move along helping. They put on Rise of the Guardians and Moana to eat to and they both couldn’t help but smile noting Deceit had both finished off his plate and fallen back to sleep between them.

Roman ended up carrying him back upstairs to take a nap and closed the door to give him some privacy. Virgil woke up and toddled downstairs after Roman to the coffee machine pawing at it like it would know what he wanted. Roman helpfully poured him coffee and got a head against his shoulder in thanks as Virgil took his liquid energy for the day and sat at the table half asleep still. No way at all he’d noticed Deceit in his half-delusioned state. Patton came down a half hour later for breakfast. Logan and Roman never spoke a word that day of their happy first morning with their dark, strange son.


	4. Sunny Days Ahead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman accidentally _actually_ adopts Deceit and Deceit meets a pretty guy in the Imagination.

The day was bright after breakfast, perfect for a venture to the Imagination. The ideal of going into Imagination was fun and Roman decided he should bring Deceit for some time not stuck up in his new room. Even if it was fun to have a new room, Roman knew being stuck in it meant he’d come to resent it.

So, while Patton did his laundry and Virgil took his nearly-noon nap, Roman and Deceit bid farewells to Logan and set off to a day out together in a village near Roman’s castle. Roman thought Deceit looked fine but Deceit had asked him at least three times before he left his room if he looked okay.

It was different, but it didn’t look bad at all. His old black and yellow ‘villain outfit’ had been traded in again for mostly black with some white. Plain black sneakers with wedges to try and make him look taller, though the illusion failed Roman now that he knew most of his shoes had heels or platforms in them. Dee also wore black jean shorts and a black short sleeve off shoulder top with two thin straps that sat on his shoulders to keep it from falling off.

Despite Roman saying he looked fine, Deceit had covered his snake scales with makeup. At first he was deeply impressed with how easily and well he had covered them. But now that he realized it, it had seemed too much like a second nature, something engrained into his nature. The shirt without sleeves let him see Deceit’s forearms and shoulders and the tattoos on him.

His left arm had a gold outlined rainbow snake wrapping its body around his wrist with its red head on the back of his hand. His right arm held, from what he could see, a full sleeve of tattoos consisting of golden and yellow hives of honeycombs in full color with black and yellow honeybees all about. The way his shirt was flowy, he could see the pretty colors and gold linework on his left hip, but not quite make out what they were.

But the black text he could see very clearly under his shirt. The horribly scrawled words ‘PROPERTY OF’ were very prominent on Deceit’s right hip. They were hard to miss and Roman swore he almost forgot how to breathe when he saw it. But he forced his gaze up from the tattoos. He wouldn’t look at the colors lest his eyes wander to the words and continue making him furious. He’s focus on the pretty golden linework on the snake and the bees and honey.

Roman and Dee had, first, went to Deceit’s room and had fed Deceit’s dog, Boogey and put his harness on her. Roman was sure no kids came to came to pet or distract her since she was a service dog and she working right now. They went to a small city near his castle to be sure he could hide Deceit if anything happened. But nothing seemed to be going wrong today, thankfully.

Roman loved seeing him get so happy in the sun, though. Deceit was a natural at sunny days even with having lived in the grey area for so long with nothing but stormy, rainy days. Roman took him to quite a few places, Roman making the bags they acquired go back to Deceit’s new room. They’d left a small jewelry store with a snake ring and a bat necklace Deceit intended to give Virgil (or rather have Roman give Virgil) right before they went to a coffee shop.

Roman got a mocha and Deceit got a macchiato. The place was generally quite loud for a coffee shop but it made that they could have any private conversation they wanted. And it gave Roman the opportunity to ask Deceit questions. About the eating disorder, the trust issues, the meek personality compared to his debate apparently ‘for-show personality’ as Roman was calling it, the tattoo on his hip Roman tried to put out of his mind even if he tried (and god, has he tried).

“So me and Logan have meant to ask some questions.“ Roman began.

“My eating problems?“ Deceit asked softly.

“Uh…yeah, that’s one of them.“ Roman stammered, he hadn’t expected Deceit to know what he was asking about.

“I know it’s probably kind of concerning, but I’ve been getting better. Getting out of the dark side helped. I’ve been recovering, I just have a few more habits from it to kick.” Deceit assured him.

“So you _did_ have an eating disorder?“ Roman asked, voice feeling too soft, too shocked to be more than quiet right now. He’d admitted to it, he actually admitted to having an eating problem and that he had been recovering by himself, even before their help.

“I did. But I’m getting much better. Next question.”

“Logan says he thinks you have some kind of trust issues.“

“That’s from the trauma and abandonment issues. Those should be tabled for later. Maybe another not-so-pretty out day.“ Deceit was far too matter-of-fact for Roman to feel like that was normal. Even Virgil hadn’t come to them like this. But Roman swallowed his concern and took a deep breath.

“And last question. I um…I noticed the tattoo on your hip.“

“The flowers or…?“ He didn’t continue to ask the question, forced his mouth onto the rim of his cup, hunching in slightly.

“Both.“ Roman hated to admit it but if he didn’t answer it would probably be worse on Deceit’s mental health right now, especially with his recovery. The deceitful side gave a little sigh and put his coffee back on the table.

“The dark side isn’t a nice place. There are a few less than friendly people and I had the unfortunate opportunity to have gotten the interest of Malice. He doesn’t make for a great husband. I was young and too naive to know better then. And when he found out my room would be moving to the grey area, he decided it was best to give me something permanent to remember him by.“ Deceit’s voice was tight, he could tell already that he hated Malice. “Anyway, um…I was going to add to the flowers. A red rose and a blue tulip.” Deceit smiled slyly as he changed the subject.

“Why?“ Roman was quite confused. Why would he be adding new flowers.

“Didn’t you see them?“ Deceit asked.

“Barely, I just thought they were like…blobs of color.“ Roman felt a little stupid.

“There’s flowers for every side. I’ve got me, Depression, Jealousy, Insomnia, and Virgil. I’ll be getting you and Logan.“ He explained.

“Oh! You’re getting a red rose for me?“ Roman felt his heart swell with pride.

“And a blue tulip for Logan.“ Deceit confirmed. The calm that followed was easy to relax from the questions. They talked about tattoos and Roman’s upcoming double headed snake tattoo signifying Deceit’s acceptance on his part. Deceit had drawn out, by hand, his current idea for a tattoo, the Dreamworks moon logo, that would go over the black ink that was thankfully, apparently, small enough to cover it up with the logo in black.

“Oh hey, Roman. Haven’t seen you in town much, lately. Who’s your cute friend? You cheating on Logan?“ Roman knew it was Remy the minute he heard his voice.

“Remy, this is Dee. He’s the side that functions as Self-Preservation and Deception. And, no, I’m not cheating on Logan. I’m taking Dee out since it’s so sunny and pretty out today.“ Deceit was looking over the newcomer, obviously judging if he was a threat.

“Dee, this is Remy. He’s a character from the Sanders Shorts videos. He represents Sleep, He’s pretty cool once you get to know him. Likes tattoos. Like a lot. And he likes Dreamworks too.“ Roman saved Dee the headache of getting through Remy’s personality to find a common interest.

“You like Dreamworks?“ The snakelike trait asked the figment.

“Gurl, I don’t _like_ Dreamworks. I _love_ Dreamworks. There’s a difference. And here babe, put you number in.“ Remy handed him his phone. Deceit’s hands trembled a little but he typed in his number into Remy’s phone.

“Kay, boo. I’ll text ya later when you’re not with your Dad.“ Remy picked up Deceit’s left hand and pressed his lips against the back of it. “Cute snake.“ Remy added and then patted Roman’s shoulder goodbye and waved at Boogey before he left the two.

“He seems to like you, that’s good.“ Roman couldn’t help but smile at the other side’s blushing face.

“He’s cute too.“ Deceit whispered as if defeated.

“Ah, young love. I remember when me and your other father were that young and first falling in love.“ Roman further teased.

“Oh god, Dad, no.“ Deceit whined, hiding his face even though he was very clearly smiling. To add to it, Remy’s number clearly displayed on Deceit’s phone with a chime and a message with a smiley face, only making him blush more. Roman snuck a very happy Deceit, with Boogey, back to his room once they’d finished their traversing of the town. Roman couldn’t be happier about their day together and, apparently, his adoption of Dee as his son.


	5. Our Past And Our Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remy and Deceit have their date and someone finds out about Deceit staying in the Mind Palace.

That night was great, Deceit was so excited talking to Remy that even Logan was metaphorically onboard with Deceit possibly dating him. And date him Deceit decided he would do. He’d even brought it up to them while it was nearing ten at night that he and Remy set up a tattoo session as a date.

The next day was Logan’s day of bonding more with Deceit and they went to a zoo to look at all the animals before visiting Deceit’s snakes and spending time with them. The deceptive trait then went to finalize the design with the tattoo artist he’d scheduled his session with.

The next day was Dee and Remy’s tattoo sessions and he was anxious to get it done. He went without either of them Deceit had never felt more anxious. Okay, maybe he had been more anxious before, when he was married to Malice. But starting to date again was rising his anxiety levels to astronomic heights and he was just grateful he could sit still.

Remy was happy to see him, of course, all smiles and laughing and joking. It slowly calmed him down. His calm was broken, however, realizing that he’d be covering up his ‘Property Of Malice’ tattoo. _In front of his new boyfriend!_ He, of course, masked his panic upon getting the stencil on with an awkward half smile.

Remy thankfully didn’t question the tattoo it was covering up and, instead remarked that he was getting a Dreamworks tattoo, as if the disgusting scrawled black ink that was there didn’t exist. Remy was getting a coffee cup on his right wrist, simple, small, easy. That meant Remy’s was done rather quickly and the brunette figment of Imagination got to watch Deceit’s tattoo from the halfway point.

From there it was easy with filling in the black outline with black ink as they talked to both each other and the tattoo artist until Dee’s was finished and both were given instruction on their tattoo care and they both gave payment. Without hesitation, the lying side simply brought Remy back to the Mind Palace with him, quite a bit on a high from finally being rid of the ink that had marred his skin for the worse part of a half a year. Roman and Logan, of course, got them upstairs without an issue, since it was around ten at night now and everyone should be in their own rooms.

“Gurl, why are they hiding you like a pet?“ Remy flopped on the bed on his back.

“Patton doesn’t like me and Virgil and I don’t quite have a good past.“ _Hah_ , that was putting it lightly. He _betrayed_ him when he married Malice, not that he had much of a choice with being coerced and manipulated by Malin into it.

“Do you want to talk about the tattoo you got covered up today or want me to keep pretending it doesn’t exist?“ Remy asked.

“I’d like to act like it didn’t exist.“ He flopped on the bed next to the figment, also on his back. “But it was from my ex-husband.“ He added with a sigh.

“Oof. He musta been a stupid bastard to hurt you.“ Remy noted.

“He’s not important. He doesn’t matter anymore.“ He smiled softly. Malice was his past, sure. But Remy was he present and hopefully his future. He wouldn’t let his past keep stopping him, even with all the trauma it gave him.

“Exactly, gurl. Fuck him. Metaphorically, not literally.“ Deceit began laughing at his fumble and laid over Remy’s side. He was comfortable here with him. It felt right. “God, you’re cute when you laugh.“ Remy muttered, but he heard and it made him blush darkly, his face turning yellow.

They watched Monsters vs Aliens until it was over and they both decided it was getting too late to continue their date. Deceit found a paper when he opened the door to tell Remy goodbye. He did tell him goodbye and let Remy kiss him. He squealed momentarily when Remy left because Remy had actually kissed him. He jumped around a bit and rolled on his bed a bit to let out his excitement. Then he calmed and focussed on the paper, which Dee opened and read.

‘I know you’re here, Deceit. Let’s talk tomorrow morning. -Virgil‘ And his heart sank and he damn near had a heart attack when Roman and Logan came to visit his room. But he put on a smile and they went downstairs at two in the morning and made a cinnamon roll non-dairy cheesecake and ate their 3am meal together. And he didn’t speak a word of it so he didn’t worry them.

If Virgil was angry, he could take it out on him, not Roman and Logan. He wouldn’t let Virgil be mad at Roman and Logan, not when they’d been so nice making sure he wasn’t fading. He slept rather uneasily that night, tossed and turned, but he did sleep a few hours. And, the next morning, he stayed downstairs with Roman and Logan when Virgil came down.

Neither seemed to notice but they shared a long, quiet look before Deceit announced he was going upstairs to his room to Roman and Logan and they yellow and purple sides both went up to Dee’s temporary room. Once they got there, Deceit gave a sigh because he could hear Patton’s door open. Deceit took a deep breath.

Dee was definitely _not_ intimidating. 4′11″ and 105 pounds soaking wet, currently dressed in sleep shorts and an oversized tee shirt, what he’d slept in last night and was too tired still to change out of. But Deceit made the first move.

“I know. I’m not supposed to be here and you probably want me to leave. Right?“ Dee asked.

“No. I just want you to know that, if you bother Patton, I will want you to leave.“ Virgil alerted him.

“Noted. Anything else?“ Deceit asked.

“Are you still married to that asshole you left me for?“ Virgil asked.

“No, I divorced him a few weeks before I showed up in the debate about lying to Joan.“

“You actually left him?“

“Well, when you get treated like a prisoner in your own home, you kind of want to leave the person making you feel like that. Especially after they manipulated you into leaving someone you really loved.“ Virgil looked at him oddly, like he hadn’t expected that answer.

“Wait, you said you were breaking up with _me_ getting married to him because you loved _him_ more than me.“

“Of course I did, I was _lying_. Malin was watch me tell you. You don’t just tell someone you’re being _forced_ to get married _in front of_ the person you’re marrying.“ The expression of Virgil’s face very much told him that Virgil understood now why he’d married Malice.

He let Virgil nearly tackle him to the bed in a hug with apologies. They spent the day catching up with everything Virgil had missed and everything Deceit had missed too. And it wasn’t that bad that Virgil found out after all. Hopefully now they could fix their broken friendship.


	6. Honeybee and Fruitbat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil and Deceit have a long, difficult talk to work things out but an issue arrises when they realize someone heard them.

Deceit woke up to a long, nearly forgotten but very familiar feeling of a warm body against him. It was tempting to stay like this forever in this comfortable, warm space of bed. Then he remembered exactly who he was asleep against and nearly panicked as he pushed himself up away from his bedmate. He and Virgil had spent the night together watching movies but Deceit didn’t remember moving to the bed. He’d fallen asleep on the bean bag chair!

Virgil immediately shot up and pulled him down and the blanket up over them, Virgil’s right shoulder and head guarding his head like they used to when Malice came into their room when he was mad in the morning. Dee’s heart was racing but, in his panic, he did realize they were both dressed and Virgil was in fight mode of his fight or flight. So he forced himself to calm down and took Virgil’s face in his hands, hugging him close.

“He’s not here. It’s just me. I thought something happened. Deep breaths with me.“ Deceit then guided Virgil throught deep breathing exercises. Virgil eventually dropped from fight mode to neutral and hugged him close.

“’M sorry. You just moved really quick like he came in.“ Virgil apologized.

“No apologies, it’s okay. Sorry for scaring you. I thought we did…things because I remember falling asleep on the bean bag chair.“ Virgil gave a kind of awkward laugh but he moved off Deceit to sit on his legs.

“Oh.“ Virgil scratched his hair. “I didn’t think you’d be comfortable there so I got you to the bed and passed out too.“

“That makes more sense.“ Deceit rubbed his eyes from the crust of sleep.

“So you and Remy, huh?“ Virgil pulled on his hoodie.

“You know about that? Did you follow me?“ Deceit started laughing.

“Nah, saw him kiss you and leave your room and assumed. But you definitely just confirmed it.“

“That was our first date, actually. We’ve only gone on the one date so far but I think it’s working.“ Deceit pushed his hair from his eyes.

“That’s great!“ Oh no, Virgil’s fake smile.

“What’s wrong? Is something wrong?“ He asked.

“Kinda weird how both my exes are dating now.“

“Feeling left out, honey?“

“…Maybe a little bit. I mean, everyone I know is either dating or married now. Pat and Emile are engaged, Logan and Roman are married, you and Remy are dating. I guess I kinda feel lonely.“

“Surely, Roman can try to set you up with someone.“

“No. I just…we’re friends again. You probably should know, since it kinda concerns you. I’m not exactly over either you or Remy yet. I’d rather try to get over that before I try to start dating again or I’ll just keep screwing it up.“ A quiet few minutes passed between them.

“I’m really not over you either.“ the deceptive side whispered.

“You’d break it off with Remy?“ Virgil raised his eyebrows.

“I- No, I love him too. I don’t know what I want. I just…I want to be happy again with whoever I’m with. I want to be proud again when I say I’m married, if I even ever can feel okay getting married again.“ He took a deep breath, it was harder to admit than Dee originally thought.

“Well, we’d work this time with no crazy manipulative bastards around.“ Virgil was quiet.

“We would, I know. But I can’t just leave Remy. I love him too, Virgil. And it’s not fair to him to leave him like I left you.“ Virgil pulled him against his shoulder.

“That doesn’t have to be the end of this conversation though.“ Virgil alerted him some minutes of silence later.

“Huh? How? I’ve already told you I don’t want to leave him and I won’t let you become my new Malin. I won’t go through that again, Virgil. You know what he did to me, I won’t let it happen again.“ Again, 4′11 but he could make his voice threatening to make up for it.

“No! No.“ Virgil exclaimed. “No, not like that. I just meant if I still like you and Remy and you still like me and Remy, then maybe we could talk to Remy about the three of us dating instead of just you and him.”

“Virgil, we’ve been on one date. I don’t want to scare Remy off.“

“Hate to burst your bubbles, babes but you’ve got me on speaker and had me here for about an hour now.“ Remy’s voice crackled through on Deceit’s phone.

“Oh god, I must have layed on it and hit the wrong buttons!“ Deceit would have hid his face but he was too busy fumbling his phone. “I’m sorry, how much did you hear?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure your pretty self called me a few minutes before you woke up so I’m guessing I heard everything. Including your chat with Virge about the three of us.“ Like a lot of times with Malice, he couldn’t bring himself to speak, all it would be was lies and he didn’t want Remy to have to deal with that after hearing everything they’d discussed.

“And, babes, you don’t gotta worry. Cuz, yeah, I still like Virge too and you won’t scare me off. So if you two are willing to try, so am I. I’m onboard completely with whatever you choose, Honeybee.“ Remy added, which relaxed him enough to manage to speak a little bit again, calming down from his slight panic.

“Well, I guess if you don’t mind it then I guess we’re all in? Right Virgil?“ He turned to look at the purple haired side.

“No opposition here as long as you’re both fine with us three all dating.“ Virgil rubbed Deceit’s right arm, calming him down a little more.

“And I’m also gonna come over about ten for a movie night date and a sleepover, just the three of us. I’ll bring pizza.“ Remy told them. “And good to be back with you, Fruitbat.“ Remy added before he hung up, leaving two very confused sides, who both immediately burst into laughter and fell back on the bed hugging.

“’Honeybee?’“

“’Fruitbat?’“

“He likes my bee tattoo.“

“He likes my bat tattoo.”

“Oh no, now we both get nicknames constantly. He gets double the range of nicknames.“ Deceit buried his face in his pillow.

“I wonder if he’ll let me tattoo him again.“ Virgil was obviously thinking aloud but this just made Deceit curious which tattoos Virgil had given Remy. He’d seen familiar linework that was telltale signs that it could have been Virgil but he’d mistaken it for another artist.

“Which ones did you do?“ He asked.

“He’s got a little black and gold dragon on his left shoulder from me and he’s got a white and green turtle tattoo on right here.“ He put his hand right below the middle of his collarbone.

“He wanted something to match your bat, eh?”

“Yeah. He convinced me to do ‘em even after I told him the last one I’d done was your last flower.”

“About my flowers. I think they’re going to be growing in number soon. I was hoping you’d help now that you don’t hate my existence anymore?“

“Sure, which colors this time.“

“Red and dark blue first. Aqua later when he’s not going to hate me as much, hopefully.”

“Mhm, I can do them, sure. We’ll start doing designs as soon as we go eat.“ Virgil told him, dragging him from the bed.

“No, it’s comfy and warm.“ Deceit whined but followed him willingly downstairs only to realize once they were down there that Roman and Logan didn’t know Virgil knew he was there, let alone that he was more than fine with it. But it was too late once the left and right brain spotted them both.


	7. Our Past Does Not Define Us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman and Logan find out about Virgil knowing about Deceit and Deceit finally opens up more to them about his past with the dark sides.

The suddenness of Deceit getting immediately pulled away from Virgil and hidden behind Roman was enough to make him nauseous and to also trigger less than pleasant memories. The amount of time it took for him to drop to the floor hands covering his head, was way too quick. It made the deceitful trait nauseous.

Having three different voices talking too indistingushably to be understand didn't calm him. He tried to breathe slower but he couldn't time it right to calm down enough. Everything was too much, it felt suffocating. Malin wasn't here, right!?

The cacophany of voices stopped and gentle hands brushed his own, careful to keep him from lashing out but trying to alert him to the presence before him.

"Breathe slowly, in for me. Deep breath." Virgil's voice. He got a shaky deep breath down. "Can you name me something you can see?" Virgil's voice wasn't forceful. He picked his head up from his knees and looked around. Colors everywhere, he could barely identify anything with the glares of his flashback gleaming in his peripheral.

"J-Jacket." He tugged at Virgil's jacket.

"What color is it?" Virgil let him examine the jacket sleeve, keep holding it for something to ground him.

"Purple. Black." He held tightly to the fabric.

"What's my name?" The anxious trait asked.

"Virgil Flynn Sanders. Anxiety." He heard a couple voices near to him but not quite close. He almost turned to look but Virgil kept his face toward him, making sure he came from his flashback instead of trying to get too far back in his current progress.

"Where are we?" He had to think for a minute. This didn't feel like the common room in the dark side house.

"Light side. Mind palace. Common room." He wasn't fully sure but it was apparently enough of an answer for Virgil.

"They're just memories. They're not happening again." Virgil assured him.

"They're just memories." He parroted, looking up to Virgil's face.

"You're okay." Virgil let himself be nearly tackled with a hug.

"Is he okay?" Roman's soft, cautious voice was no longer drowned out with his heartbeat. He wiped his face of the tears.

"I'm okay. That just happens sometimes."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Logan asked softly.

"I'm alright. It's just a flashback." Virgil helped him up and held his arm around his waist to keep him up and grounded.

"You get those?" Roman asked.

"I have PTSD from Malice. I should have told you."

"We can talk about it after breakfast. I'm sure you two are hungry." Breakfast was waffes and scrambled eggs. Everyone was generally quiet as was clean up afterwards.

"Pat should be staying with Emile today so we've got all day to talk this out if we need to." Virgil assured him once everyone had settled at the kitchen table.

"We can just start at the beginning." Deceit took a deep breath. "I'm something called fused side. I'm made from pieces of things that don't quite fit into any other side and sort of work together for the same goal. I was fully formed fifteen years ago, so was Virgil. I'm made from Deception, Self-Preservation, and Ethos or Ethics. My name is Cassidy." He paused to let them both react to his name.

"Cassidy Page Sanders." Virgil added.

"Well, technically his last name is Sanders-Prince now." Logan chimed.

"Cassidy." Roman seemed to get used to it.

"From the C in Deception and Deceit. Virgil recommended it because of my hair being so curly. Cassi, Sidy, or CeeCee for short." The snakelike trait 

"Our son Cassi." Roman nudged Logan into a response with his elbow.

"Your name is very fitting. It's cute." Logan told him.

"Back on track." Dee readjusted his train of thought. "We grew pretty quickly because of my Self-Preservation and his Fight-or-Flight. Instincts make you grow faster. Virgil and I were newly made together then so we did a lot of things together. We were best friends from around the human equivalent of four years old and we started dating when we were about age ten. We got engaged when we turned sixteen. That's when everything went bad." He took a breath. This was harder. Virgil tightened his hand in Dee's

"Malice took interest in me when he found out me and Virgil were engaged. He wanted me for himself so he manipulated me into leaving Virgil to get eloped with him. Once we were married, I couldn't leave him unless I did something big. That's why I showed up how I did. I never meant to hurt anyone but I had to to leave him. The only way to get divorced and stay divorced from him was to get out of the dark side. So I showed myself to Thomas to get my room moved at least into the grey area."

"When I was married to him, Malice did whatever he wanted to me. He held nothing back. I cooked, I cleaned, he kept me more like a pet than a spouse. And when he wanted his way and I fought back, he used other methods to make me listen." Virgil's hand got tighter.

"If my claws grew out too far for his liking, he put mittens on me until I gave and told him I'd file them down again. If I spoke back or defended myself, he'd beat me until I couldn't move for the next week. If I didn't do something the way he wanted me to, even if my way was more effective, he'd tear up the gardens I made. If I did something he didn't like, like go out or not wear my makeup to cover the scales, he..." Deep breath. He tightened his own hand in Virgil's "He'd rape me." He couldn't look at Logan or Roman. He didn't want to know their expression. He didn't want to see their pity.

"He manipulated me into doing anything he wanted until I finally snapped, told him I wanted a divorce, signed my half of the paperwork, went to a court in the Imagination to tell them it was a divorce caused by abuse. They filed it through without his signature, and I showed myself to Thomas to move my room." He risked a look upward to Roman and Logan's face. They didn't look pitying, they looked a bit mad, hopefully not at him. He couldn't take it if it was him they were mad at.

"I'm sorry we couldn't have helped you then, Cassidy." Logan was very obviously having his hand squeezed to near death by Roman as the creative side was nearly crying.

"Oh, Cassi." He let Roman hug him tightly. "Are you sure you're okay?" He held his face like it was one of the most precious things and Deceit had to blink back tears from it.

"I'm still working through the PTSD and the Trust Issues. I have a therapist in the Imagination I go to every month to check in on my progress. I'm doing a lot better than I was a year ago. I've made a lot of progress." He couldn't help smiling. He'd gone through a lot, but he made it. He was here now, he wasn't stuck in a house with Malin anymore. He was dating Virgil and Remy, Roman and Logan had adopted him. There were better days ahead.


	8. I'm Breaking And Falling Apart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next discussion happens way too soon for anyone’s comfort and it’s met with disastrous consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lies are bolded like **this**

Faint sunlight shone through the double curtains and suddenly Deceit’s room felt alive even through sunlight shining in and the music still playing from last night. It may be the best song he’s ever woken up to, the light melody of ‘A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes’ by Annapantsu. Along with feeling Virgil against his front and Remy cuddling up behind him, he couldn’t imagine a better way to ever wake up.

The movie night last night was perfect too. They’d been so happy together. He had never been so happy in his fifteen years of life. With Remy and Virgil getting into a debate about Dreamworks and Disney. They’d laid in bed draped over each other, protecting each other from anything possible that could come hurt them.

But, sure enough, Dee had to have known something would happen the moment he was happy.

The minute breakfast was over, Thomas called on them, including Deceit. Cassidy barely had a few seconds to snap his proper ‘villain’ clothing on. It had only been a total of a month, a week, and three days since the last discussion so this was apparently labelled an emergency and ushered all sides in the Mind Palace to their spots.

Deceit, of course, rose up a bit later because he didn’t want Patton to see him in the Mind Palace. But he did rise up into his new permanent spot in the corner between the couch and window, into chaos. Logan and Patton were screaming and fighting while Roman tried to break it up and Virgil had an anxiety attack along with their host not knowing what really to do. He snapped several times to get, at the very least, Virgil’s attention.

“Virgil, breathe slowly. Five things you can see.“ A hyperventilating Virgil looked up and then around.

“Y-You. R-Roman. The g-ground, My jacket. The pic-picture.“ He was very deep in this if he was only noticing the bigger things, the closer things.

“Four things you can touch.“ He instructed him.

“My jacket. The stairs. The bannisters. The wall behind me.“ He was breathing better, at least.

“Three things you hear.“ He urged the anxious side.

“Your voice. Screaming. The clock.“ Deceit glanced at the wall clock and back to Virgil.

“Two things you smell.“ Deceit told Virgil. He was making progress.

“Coffee and pancakes.“ That was good. He was calming down.

“Good. And one thing you taste.“ He finally asked.

“My coffee from breakfast.“ He was calm, Thomas was as calm as he could be when his Morality and Logic were fighting.

“What’s happening here, Virgil?“ He asked.

“Joan and Talyn want us to go to a party tonight, but one of our exes that cheated on us is going to be there.“ Virgil alerted him. Very done with the fighting, Deceit controlled Patton and Logan’s hands over their mouths.

“Good, now. Which of our exes is going to be there? There’s two that cheated on our Thomas?” Deceit asked them all. Virgil looked at Patton and then put his guard up. He was acting for Patton like they weren’t dating again.

“WIlliam, you scaled freak.“ Oh, ew. _William_. Disregarding the insult as a show for Patton, Deceit had hated dating Will. Every fiber of his opinion of the man had been against dating him, William reminded Cassidy of Malin far too much for comfort. It had been merely Patton’s opinion in general that made them trust him in the first place, and they he’d broken their host’s heart by not even concealing his cheating nature.

“ _That one_? We definitely shouldn’t go.“ _No_ , he didn’t mean to say it that way! As the resident liar, he’d meant to say that he **didn’t** want Thomas to go. He meant to lie, not tell the truth or they’d misconstrue it! And he only knew two sides capable of twisting his lies before they’d even left his mouth. And now he felt like he couldn’t speak at all.

“Yeah, I think we should too, Joan will be there. So will Talyn. We’ll be fine.“ Roman told him.

He bit the inside of his cheek, his Dad agreed with Patton? What about his Mom? He looked to Logan.

“If our Self-Preservation thinks we should go, then I guess we should go.“ Virgil looked at him in panic and anger.

“I don’t want to go.“ Virgil told the others.

“It won’t be bad, kiddo. We’ll be fine.“ Virgil’s death glare dropped and was replaced with acceptance.

“I…I guess.“ He agreed.

Deceit felt tears build up and he sunk out into his room in the grey area. He felt the fading beginning in his hands. He made to flop on his bed only to fall right through to the floor beneath it. He curled up there instead and started crying silently with his lost voice and his anger.

The party wasn’t much better, he was nauseous the whole time and still unable to speak. He couldn’t even think about going to Malin to see if it was him and he, well, he didn’t think confronting Patton while mute was a good idea. So he just turned his television in his room on to make sure that Thomas was okay. He may be fading, but he would make sure Thomas was okay.

And, for the first hour of the party, Thomas was. Joan and Talyn both stayed closeby. Then William got close to him and Deceit would have screamed there was something wrong with Thomas’ drink. He could have if he could break free of this control on his vocal cords or if he could have gotten to the Mind Palace sooner.

But he couldn’t. And the whole Mindscape turned black with the ingestion of something, probably a sleeping pill. It hadn’t fully affected their host yet but everything was echoey. Getting to the Control with his chest heaving, Deceit dodged the light sides and immediately piloted Thomas to Joan before he could collapse completely. As did Deceit, falling hard to the floor of the Control Room, gasping and pale with his hands fading in and out of existence with William’s last words to Thomas ringing in his ears like an inescapable bell as it phased into Malice’s voice in his head as he passed out.

_‘I’m so happy you’ll come to your senses soon.‘_


	9. All That's Left

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dire consequences and fights happen after everyone realizes Deceit is fading, and their Self-Preservation with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bold like **this** are lies.  
> Anything like _‘this’_ is someone’s thoughts.  
> Anything like ‘this’ is ASL.

Virgil hated this party. He hated Thomas being there where William could get near him. Thomas was _afraid_ of William, yet they’d still gone. He had been trying to make everyone as cautious as possible but he was getting silenced much more than normal. It was obvious Patton could sense the newly mended connection between him and Deceit.

And his voice was getting fainter throughout the party, he couldn’t even speak to alert them by the time he saw something in their drink either because, when he shook them to tell them, they ignored him until he devolved into an anxiety attack.

But when he was finally able to escape his anxiety attack, he found everyone panicking and Deceit on the floor in front of him. Immediately, he saw the fading of his hands and the whitening of the yellow in his hair, the flickering of his body. In that instance, Virgil started crying again.

 _‘No, no, no. Not yet.’_ He made to grab him, arms slipping through and Deceit whined, curling up further into a fetal position as his form was as pale as a ghost and his scales began fading of their color to pink. He was getting weaker first before fading completely.

“Dee.“ He struggled his voice back from its hold. “Come back. Please. Don’t fade on me and Remy. Please.“ He begged him.

‘I’m not going to.’ ASL? Deceit couldn’t speak.

“ _Patton, stop!_ “ Virgil screamed at him. The hold on his voice dropped and he sputtered breath, gasping hard at the strain and the sudden freedom. Cassidy did much of the same, coughing and giving pained whimpers.

“Virgil, he’s trying to trick us. We can’t listen to him.“ Patton insisted.

“He’s not! He’s fading, Patton! He’s dying!“ Virgil snapped at him.

“I’ll be okay.“ Deceit tried to hold his face but the hand simply fazed through him and made more tears fall.

“He’s not dying from one little time of making him say the truth to make sure we went to a party!“ Virgil’s heart dropped. Patton manipulated Deceit? He made him fade? This was _his_ fault.

He launched at the moral trait, taking him to the floor, shaking fist pulled back and hovering. He couldn’t do it. Deceit’s hands fazed through him as he tried to pull him off Patton. Roman and Logan hauled him off him. He started crying again, burying into Roman. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t lose his Honeybee again.

“Patton, how could you trick us like that!?“ Logan snapped at him.

“You all were harboring him! You let him into the Mind Palace! I had to make him leave somehow!“ The moral side argued.

“And this isn’t the way!“ Roman hissed at him.

“Patton, Deceit is our Self-Preservation. If he dies, Thomas will die soon too.“ Patton’s face changed to realization.

“Oh gosh no. Deceit, stop fading! Stop!“ Patton’s sudden change shocked almost everyone. Except Deceit.

“I can’t control that. It’s your fuck up. You fix me if you want me alive.“ He forced himself up off the floor, unable to lean on anything lest he faze through but it took a few tries to steady himself, since nothing could touch him. Dee never cursed like that in front of others, he was serious.

Since Thomas was unconscious, everyone returned to their rooms to hopefully even out the imbalance of their Self-Preservation fading. Virgil texted Remy to come over so at least someone could stay with Cassi. Remy came to his room first and knocked at the door softly, stealing a kiss and assuring Virgil that Dee would be fine, he was their strong Honeybee and he’d be fine.

Virgil stayed up all night working diligently on tattoo designs for clients to keep hs mind off his boyfriend that he couldn’t visit. Every time he looked at designs for the two new flowers Cassi wanted, his heart ached.

 _‘Are these going to be the only thing I’m going to have left of him?’_ He thought, staring at the two designs.


	10. If I Can Save You, I Will

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bold like **this** are lies.  
> Anything like _‘this’_ is someone’s thoughts.  
> Anything like ‘this’ is ASL.

Morning came slow, Virgil had finished any designs that needed to be drawn this week and had outlines for next week done. He’d passed out on his drawing desk, he didn’t even know when. But he woke up to sun in his eyes. It had no right to be sunny out when his Honeybee was dying. But he couldn’t leave to see him either and it nearly brought him to tears again.

It was nearing noon, he’d slept late so he didn’t get his pre-noon nap to work off his insomnia medication. He trudged on with the morning. They had to meet in Thomas’ living room, to speak with him about Deceit and hopefully fix everything.

It was taking its toll over Virgil as Vigilance to take over the majority of Deceit’s Self-Preservation. His body screamed with the pain of a new piece trying to fit in unevenly. It would be too much for him to do, it didn’t fit. He hopes Roman wasn’t suffering as well with the Ethos he was receiving.

With Logan obviously receiving Deception, it left Patton odd man out as they spoke to Thomas. He didn’t speak until it came to someone asking him questions or for his opinion or side of things. Because it wasn’t them he needed to apologize to, no matter how many times he’d tried last night or this morning.

It was Deceit, who was suffering with the pain of fading, the knowledge he’d die. Virgil could take it, losing his boyfriend and best friend. Sure, it would hurt like hell but he could mourn. He could take however long he needed for that. Deceit didn’t have that, he didn’t have that solace of knowing he could mourn his own loss or have time before he was gone.

It would be a miracle if letting Thomas know of the situation would even make him stop fading at all. They weren’t sure, nobody was. No side had ever been stopped from fading before because they never brought up their losses to Thomas. When the others faded away into nothingness or shards of traits, Thomas was too young to understand. But now he was an adult, he understood. Maybe this time could be different. Virgil didn’t think his heart could take losing someone else.

Throughout the discussion, it was fairly obvious that Emile was alerted of the current situation by Remy. Of course Remy would tell him, they were basically brothers and Deceit’s therapist deserved to know about how downhill things were going. Virgil was almost stunned to hear Thomas getting mad at Patton and telling him off for what he did and giving Virgil, Logan, and Roman his best regards for Dee.

Explaining the situation was hard, Virgil wanted to cry every step of it, Logan and Roman were both in Roman’s spot, completely disregarding the column between the in attempts to comfort each other while staying close to Virgil to give him support too.

When he got back to the Mind Palace, Virgil looked out his door. There it was, a yellow and golden door next to the black one of Deceit’s new room. The old and the new. With his heart in his throat, Virgil sucked in a shaky breath and made a run for the black door, opening it to check inside.

Cassidy was standing up, his hands weren’t phasing through anymore. He was still pale and his scales pale too, but he was alive and he would live.

“Vee.” Cassi put his hand against Virgil’s chest, it didn’t go through. Remy was smiling proudly from the beanbag chair in the corner. Virgil immediately intercepted him, hugging him tightly.

“You’re okay. It worked.” He could have, no, he _was_ crying into Cassi’s hair and hiccupping with tears. He could feel his anxiety attack over almost losing him building up.

“I’m okay. I’m not dying, I’ll be okay. I love you, Vee. I’m here.” He felt like collapsing, he couldn’t stop crying. But his Honeybee was okay.

“Babe, it’s okay. Come on the bean bag, let’s chill out and breathe.” Remy gathered the still crying anxious side onto the beanbag chair with him, Deceit resting on their laps since Virgil wouldn’t let him go.

“Breathe slowly. Let’s chill so we can talk.” Virgil took deeper breaths, both Deceit and Remy guiding him through them.

“G-Guys. Is it okay if we talk about things in the family room once you’ve calmed down?” Roman asked, softly and so much unlike himself that it made Virgil curious. Once he was calm, the three ventured downstairs into the family room to sit on the couch that Logan, Roman, and Patton had left unoccupied.

Remy was still combing his fingers througt Deceit’s newly snowy white hair, fingers scratching lightly at pale pink scales and examining them, appreciating the new ones as well as the few old ones that lined the edges of them like a border. The scar of his unhingable jaw was slightly sifter in color, like it was paled too. Deceit was almost purely albino save his brown eye.

“Deceit, I’d like to apologize. What I did was wrong and it almost cost my family someone dear to them. I know sorry isn’t enough, I almost killed you because of what I did. And I don’t have a good excuse besides that I was selfish. I wanted my family to myself and, to do it, I pushed you away when I should have been treating you like part of the family too. I should have given you the chance I gave Virgil when he came to us, but I was stupid and blind and I’m really, really sorry and I’ll do anything to make it up to you.” Patton ran through an apology, getting progressively more emotional but very obviously trying not to show it as not to sway Dee’s decision.

Roman was quiet unlike himself, Logan had obviously cried before Vthe triad had come down and was trying to make it less noticable. Patton looked a wreck, his eyes pink and puffy, his hair messed up from his hands running through it, his cardigan discarded to the floor near the arm chair. He looked guilty and remorseful and it hurt to see him like this, even if he was, indeed, guilty and should be remorseful.

“I accept your apology. As for what you can do to make it up to me, why don’t we all just have a movie night or something? Do something as a family.” Deceit’s request was so easy Virgil may have overlooked it if it wasn’t Patton Cassidy was speaking to.

“Honey, are you sure?” The anxious trait asked.

“He fixed what he did to me without hesitating. And everyone deserves a second chance if they prove they deserve it. The best thing he can do to make it up to me is letting me have a family again.” Deceit rubbed his hand to assure him.

“Then welcome to the fam-I-L-Y, kiddo!” And Patton hugged Virgil, Remy, and Deceit tightly.

“And your official welcome as well.“ Roman handed Deceit a paper, it looked legal. It very clearly read ‘Adoption Certificate’ with both Roman and Logan’s names signed in the spaces and Deceit’s full, real name in another.

“We didn’t want you to be an official part of the family. We filed it through Roman’s palace court and they approved it. You’re now officially our son“ Logan explained. Deceit practically flung himself at them, smiling and laughing. He was happy for it to be official. Roman and Logan didn’t even hesitate to hug him back as tightly as possible.

If Dee could accept Patton’s apology, that was good enough for Virgil to give trust back to Patton again. And it seemed Roman, Logan and Remy saw it that way too, albeit a slight grudge on Remy’s part for having to stay with Deceit through his near death process.

That night, they set up a movie night with all six of them watching Frozen and then Nightmare Before Christmas. They all fell asleep on the floor in a cuddle pile with Virgil passing out last, wondering if Dee’s scales and skin tone would ever go back to normal and his thumb running over the sensitive pink scales while Cassidy slept blissfully unaware his boyfriend was petting his scales again.

The next day they all had breakfast together and Deceit took his visit to Picani with Remy, they all spent the day together in the living room after as a family, watching movies until they all fell asleep strewn about the room on furniture.

Cassidy layed fast asleep on top of Virgil, who was holding him closely. Remy sat with his boyfriends’ heads in his lap and his own head on the couch arm. Angel, Virgil’s dog, and Boogey, Deceit’s dog, layed asleep together on the round chair. Roman and Logan cuddled up in the armchair with Logan cuddled up tightly to Roman’s side while Roman practically starfished himself on the chair, while Emile and Patton layed with their heads on top of one another in the lovechair against each other.

Virgil didn’t notice the grey glowing eyes in the corner of the room as he fell asleep to Jack Frost saving Easter on the television.


	11. Take Back What's Mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deceit is taken by a dark side, Virgil and Remy panic when they find him gone.

Waking up felt much more stiff than usual, his head ached with a migraine and his eyes were blurry when they opened. The deceptive side could barely tell where he was when he even did open his eyes. It was so dark.

Dark. _Dark_.

Oh no. Panic raced his veins as he looked up and gasped seeing the sheer amount of darkness around him. No not again. He struggled to wake himself up, hoping despero this was just sleep paralysis again.

But it wasn’t, he wasn’t asleep at all. And the minute he started moving around, he saw a figure come into his vision.

“I’m so glad I found you, Deception.” _No_.

* * *

Virgil woke up feeling weird. The weight of Cassi wasn’t on top of him.

 _‘Maybe he’s up making breakfast?’_ He didn’t smell food but maybe it was just his nose. Or maybe Cassidy was talking to someone or in the bathroom.

Getting himself up, he saw everyone still asleep. Deceit was nowhere to be found, not in the kitchen, not in the bathrooms, not him his or any other rooms.

But his heart sank the minute he saw the grey colored rag that reeked of chloroform.

 _Malice_. He was going to kill that bastard if he so much as touched his boyfriend. He stalked back downstairs, hands shaking with the stupid rag in them, and he woke everyone up.

“He took him. We had him back and he took him!” He wanted to have a full on breakdown, maybe go on a warpath over to the dark side. But he couldn’t risk it when Malice might hurt Deceit if he did.

“Who took who?” Patton finally asked after another minute of angry yet anxious pacing.

“Malice, he stole Deceit. He took him.” Virgil couldn’t take it anymore. He gave a sob, collapsing to his knees on the floor.

 _'Not again. I can’t lose someone else.’_ He felt Remy come bolting to try to keep him grounded but he just started crying harder into his shoulder. _'I can’t lose someone this close again.’_ He buried closer into the figments neck, holding him tightly for dear life.

* * *

It was quiet today. The dark side was unusually quiet. Despair didn’t like it, it meant Malice was unhappy. He’d paced the living room for at leat twenty mminutes gaining the courage to go up to the malevolent side’s room and before could knock, he heard voices screaming at each other.

“You got rid of my tattoo, pet. Did you not like it?” Malin roared loudly, obviously mad.

“I didn’t want that damn thing in the first place! You forced me!” Came a screamed response in an all too familiar voice. Deceit? Did he actually come back? Were he and Malice fighting again? He’d left over a year ago, surely his room was in the light side by now.

He heard a sudden buzz and a scream. Dee! He wanted to grab the door and yank it open, to make Malin stop hurting Deceit. He looked at the gold ring on his hand. Was he brave enough to confront his husband, though?

Another scream. Screw pacifism, he turned the handle and he tackled Malin down.

“Ah, another round of last night, Jean?” He looked at Deceit breathing hard in the chair he was bound to, new black ink marring his lower stomach with the very clear words 'Property of Malice’ tattooed into his skin. It made Jean sick to think about. But if letting Malice hurt him again kept Deceit safe for the time being, then yes.

“Of course, Mal.” He hated feeling Malin’s hands when he picked him up. He hated having to make the decision to zone out, he hated feeling dirty after. But Deceit needed time. He didn’t expect to feel the tattoo gun against his skin after and he didn’t expect a matching tattoo to Deceit’s.

“I’m marking my territory, darling. You should understand.” He didn’t, he couldn’t. He knew Malice fell asleep behind him when he felt him go lax with an arm around his waist. He started crying, trying to stay silent and still but he only ended up crying himself to sleep. But at least Deceit had time.


	12. Ghosts Of The Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deceit manages to escape Malice's room but not the house, he accidentally finds a room he thought was long gone.

Getting his arms out of the rope was hard, getting out of the room was hard too. He didn't want to leave Despair to this sociopathic maniac. But Despair had obviously done this for him. He'd seen that look in his eyes. He wanted to cry over Despair and mourn the loss of the other side's self-worth if he was so willing to give up his autonomy to give him time to get away.

But he couldn't cry now. Now it was do or die again, the dark side ideal of 'it's you or me'. He had to be selfish now or he'd never escape. Sadly, there wasn't much time. Malin had tied the knots tightly, it took time to undo them, _a lot_ of time. He'd spent hours on them and finally freed himself after about four hours when it was nearing midday.

If Mal still had the same routine, he'd sleep after _that_  and he'd be asleep for another fifteen minutes. It gave him enough time to hide, but not escape. So that's what he did. He hid inside an old empty room on the third floor.

 _Loyalty's room_ , he realized as he looked around. His heart throttled his throat. He thought Loyalty's room had disappeared with him. But he'd never gone to the third floor of the dark side house again after Virgil's room disappeared, had he?

He let his fingers trail over a small bear that Loyalty used to own, that Virgil made for the youngest side. He felt tears overcome him as he sank to the ground quietly with the bear. There was always a reason he hadn't ever gone back up to the third floor again, it was too hard to have to face the bare walls once held his fiance and their son's rooms used to be.

Fury rose in his veins against Malice, this was _his_ fault. _He_ had been the one to throw his baby into the Unconscious. He could only start crying harder, still as quietly as possible so he wouldn't be found.

He could hear Malice getting mad at his disappearance from the second floor. He could hear him smack Despair and throw him into a wall, it made him flinch and hide away further in this old dusty room.

 _'Nathanael.'_ He thought as hugged the bear closer. He couldn't bring himself to leave. Maybe there was a hope him and Virgil's son was alive. _'I'll find you.'_

* * *

Despair woke up to Malice smacking him so hard it broke the skin of his cheek.

"You let him get away! You tricked me!" The malicious side screamed at him.

"No, I didn't trick you Mal. I promise. I love you, I wouldn't trick you." He tried to explain.

"You let him get away, Jean!" Malice flung him against the nearest wall. He felt a crack and then he went unconscious again.

* * *

"Virgil, please. We'll find him. I'll make sure of it." Patton tried to assure Virgil. He hadn't moved from the blank gaze he'd had since this morning, it was debatable that he was still conscious.

"Pat, I think he's in shock." Logan put his hand against his friend's arm to usher him away.

"We've gotta snap him out of it, Lo. Who knows how long he'll be like this if we don't. What if he doesn't eat the whole time?" Patton still had pink, teary eyes. Everybody did.

"He has Remy. Remy will make sure he's okay. We need to be as calm as possible so we can at least _try_ to be rational so we can hopefully come up with an idea of how to get Deceit out of there. Especially when we don't have communication with Deceit right now." Patton's eyes got wide.

"Communication! That's it! He had his phone on him when he went to sleep last night! I saw him playing on it before I went to sleep!" Patton exclaimed. Logan looked a bit stunned at his realization.

"You...You're right. Remy, can you text him?" The figment nodded quietly, unlike himself now that Deceit was gone. Remy did just that, he sent a simple, short text reading 'Are you getting this, Dee?'. A few minutes later, Remy buzzed up with a screech of something amicable to excitement and began crying again.

"He responded!" Remy gave a victory scream. Virgil's eyes snapped slightly, the blank expression showed a sudden fiery ember of hope.

"What's with the yelling?" Roman asked from the kitchen. He sounded stuffy from his own crying fits. He blew his nose again and Logan felt hope bubble up in his chest.

"What does it say?" Patton nearly begged Remy.

"It says, exactly, 'I am. I found Nathanael's room. I'll be okay. Tell Virgil Nathanael might be alive.'" Virgil's head snapped to Remy and he now had tears falling again.

"Who's Nathanael, Virgil?" Roman asked.

"You don't have to answer if you aren't ready to talk yet." Logan assured him.

"Nathanael is my son." Virgil whispered.


	13. Not Without You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deceit and Despair finally talk.

Deceit looked around the room. It was nighttime, Malice would be asleep a few hours past sunset and hopefully Jean would be okay. Once he heard complete silence, he ventured out of Nathanael’s room and went down to the second floor.

Seeing Jean with his face caked with dry blood and a large bruise forming over his back as he tugged his shirt on quickly wasn’t what he was expecting. Jean gasped upon seeing him and immediately grabbed his arm to drag him downstairs.

“Why are you still here?” The chameleon-like side hissed at him.

“I found my son’s room, I intend to find him. And I couldn’t leave you, not when you’re being hurt by him like I was. I can’t let him keep hurting the people I care about.” Deceit explained.

“He didn’t tell you when you left?” Jean asked softly.

“Tell me what?” He was confused, what hadn’t Mal told him.

“Loyalty is alive.” Despair began.

“I know that, that’s why I’m going to try to find him in the Unconscious.” He didn’t mean to cut him off but, sadly, he did.

“Let me finish.” Jean glared up at him, not hateful for being interrupted, but just annoyed. “He’s not in the Unconscious, Malin chained him up with the Darkness.” His heart fell.

“He…He’ll be corrupted!” He hissed in panic.

“He already is. I had to give up on him. I tried.” Des looked sad.

“Thank you for trying.” He didn’t hug him, he remembered how touch avoidant he was when he was married to Malice. He, instead, held Despair’s hands with his own.

“So you’ll leave to the light side again?” Des asked.

“Not without you.” Cassidy assured him.

“And the others?” Dez asked.

“Apathy, Insomnia, and Insecurity still stay here?” He asked the confirmation.

“Devin stays in his room a lot now that you’re gone. Skye is lives off in the Imagination now. Rey stays out in the grey area but his room is still here, he doesn’t want to be in the house anymore since you’re not here anymore.”

“You’ve still got Rey and Skye’s numbers, right?” He asked.

“I have all three of their numbers. We all had to get new ones. He broke our old phones during his and my wedding because he didn’t like the flashes during pictures.” Jean bit his lip nervously looking at his watch. He knew Mal’s schedule too.

“Put them and yours in my phone so I can text them if I can talk to you without Mal knowing.” He gave Des his phone and let him program the four new numbers in his contacts.

“Good. Now, when Mal comes down for midnight snack, I won’t have enough time to hide well enough. So act like you found me trying to run out.” He stuffed his phone in his pocket out of the way.

“Hold my arm like this.” He directed Jean to hold his arm up between his shoulder blades.

“Good, now yell for him when it hits midnight in a minute or two. If you don’t he’ll know we’re faking.”

“But he’ll hit you!” Jean whispered in a panic.

“I can take it.” He assured. “And when he comes down, I’ll fight to try to ‘get away’, but don’t let me go.”

“O-Okay, Dee.” Jean pressed his head against his shoulder meekly.

“You’re a lot stronger than you think you are.” Deceit assured him, leaning his head back against his. “Now yell for Malin, Jean.” Deceit told him.

“MAL!!” The shorter side screamed up the stairs. Dee struggled against his hold as Malin came barrelling downstairs and stopped at the bottom of the stairs. He smiled darkly seeing Dee. “I found him! He tried to run out, Mal! I stopped him!” Despair thankfully sounded as Cassidy had hoped; both tired and proud. Like they’d been struggling. Malice grabbed his free arm and held it tightly.

“Good boy, Jean. You did very good. I knew I picked you for a reason.” He patted Jean on the head and ruffled his hair that hung in front of his right eye. “You can let him go now. He can’t get away now.”

“And as for you.” Malice turned to Deceit and smacked him hard across the face. He struggled not to collapse under the force of it but Mal hauled him back up to his feet anyway. “I will beat the defiance out of you if you haven’t learned your lesson yet! Don’t make me mad, Cassidy!”

“I’m sorry, Mal. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have left and I shouldn’t have tried to run. I was stupid. I should have listened to you.” He hated pleading to stay on Mal’s good side but this would mean he didn’t get tied back to that chair, it gave him freedom to move and plan. He remembered just how to stroke Malin’s ego to get him to hesitate when he was about to hurt him

“It’s midnight snack time. Help Jean make food and maybe I’ll accept your apology.” He shoved Cassidy to Jean and the melancholy side steadied him and retreated to the kitchen.

“How’d you know?” Despair whispered as quiet as possible.

“I know him. I’ve been married to him too, Dez.” He assured him just as quietly.

Making food was easy, Malin didn’t care if they ate while they worked as long as it wasn’t too long before he ate. They ate in the kitchen away from him, though, so he didn’t get mad at them for ‘hovering around him’.

Deceit could have gone his life without ever being dragged forcibly back to Malin’s room. But he wouldn’t fight back if it gave him a chance to survive. So he let himself fall back into Malin’s nighttime routine. He felt awful after, like he’d throw up. He wanted the scrub his skin to make it stop crawling. But he didn’t, he wouldn’t. He hated it, but he’d bear it.

“Maybe tomorrow, we’ll get remarried, Cassidy.” Malice told him after.

He wouldn’t cry. He _wouldn’t_ , not until Malice went to sleep. And even then he was quiet so he didn’t wake him up. He knew Jean was crying too, he could feel it and hear it. Maybe just this one time, they lied to themselves as they huddled together under Malin’s arm, maybe they’d be okay if they had each other.


	14. The Things We've Lost To The Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deceit takes Despair's place for a day, Despair tells Apathy what's happening, and Virgil expains to the light sides.

Deceit had really hoped that, after he left, he’d never have to follow this routine ever again. He’d scrubbed his skin in the shower this morning to try to make it stop crawling. But he was a day closer to getting out of here.

Jean was as obviously anxious as he was, they both wanted out. But they weren’t leaving without Devin, Rey, or Skye. So, being there was two of them, Deceit let Despair at least believe that he wasn’t married to Malin for a day while he alerted Devin, the only other side in the house, to the situation.

He let Malin take him to get remarried in dark part of the Imagination, the same place they had been last time, without any fighting back. He played the perfectly groomed spouse Malice had made him, but it was for show. It was to make sure Mal didn’t expect his plans.

He hated every minute of the dark side touching him to make sure he was there or just to claim him as his own. Malice didn’t speak a word about Jean, maybe he’d even forgotten he was married to him now instead of Deceit, or rather, as well as Deceit.

But he wouldn’t complain in any way if it meant enacting his plan faster.

* * *

The minute Jean stepped into Apathy’s room, he was brought back to the realization, for at least the twentieth time, that Devin deluded himself as much as possible that he wasn’t a dark side. It showed in the way he kept his room.

As apathetic and uncaring as he may be, Devin Ashton Sanders kept his room the cleanest among the dark sides and organized like it was his one and only hobby, which it likely was with how little he left his room nowadays. The rows and rows of audio tracks filled the room, the record player and all its records. All perfectly organized.

His room had no color. He couldn’t create color for the life of him, so all of it was darkness of black. And that’s what set him apart from a light side. No matter how much he tried, Apathy couldn’t make color. They only knew what his color was because of his eyes and their bright rosy pink.

“Dez?” Devin asked, peeking out from the closet he hid in every time someone came in.

“It’s me.” Jean assured.

“What’s happening? You only come in if it’s an emergency.”

“Deceit is back.” Devin gasped and seemed giddy with excitement.

“He’s really back?” He asked.

“He is. And he wants to get us out of here.”

“He can’t, Mal will stop him.”

“I-” He cleared his throat. This was still hard to bring up, he was a _kid_ , a _baby_ when Malice gave him over to the Darkness. It had been devastating for Virgil and Cassidy.

Cassidy had left Virgil to elope with Malin under the impression that it would save his son, Virgil had left to the light side. They’d been brand new parents and they lost both their baby _and_ their engagement for simply being happy when Malice deemed them unworthy of it. It wasn’t right.

“I told him where Malin put Nathanael. I think he’s going to try to find a way to get him out of there and fix him.” He hated thinking a seven year old was beyond saving, it hurt to think of Nathanael being hopeless. But he knew Deceit would stop at nothing and for no one if it came to his son. He could have revenge built up for years and nobody would know.

He had a feeling Deceit was ready to snap into action the second he had a chance to save his baby.

* * *

“You have a son?” Roman asked.

“Me and Cassi have a son.” Virgil took a deeper breath to calm down.

“Does this mean we’re all grandpas?” Patton asked.

“You might have been at some point but…but not anymore. Me and Dee aren’t even parents anymore. Or we weren’t until now, I guess.” He wiped his face of the tears with his hoodie sleeves.

“What happened?” Logan asked softly.

“We were engaged for six years. We’d been planning our wedding for five years of it. Our wedding planned for the next week and we had extra pieces of us gathering that we couldn’t keep anymore, they’d break us. So we made Nathanael, with pieces of us that didn’t fit, Faith and Trust. We called him Loyalty and we named him Nathanael and we loved him.” Remy knew the story from his side, he rubbed Virgil’s arm for support.

“Only three days after we made him, Malice threw our son in the Unconscious.” He choked up. Patton gasped while Logan held tightly to Roman’s shoulder to calm him down. Roman was on the verge of angry tears, about to scream in frustration, but Logan’s grip stopped him.

“After he did, he said it was an accident, they’d just been too close, but our son was a baby. It was obvious he threw him in but we believed him because we were blind with our grief. He told us that if Deceit broke off our engagement and eloped with him, he’d get us Nathanael back. But he didn’t and, after another month I left to come here. Deceit stayed there, married to that murderous asshole.”

He wanted to cry. They’d lost their son, but maybe they had hope for him still if Deceit thought he was alive. They had hope that their baby was alive at least.

“And Deceit said he might be alive?” Logan asked.

“He must have found something or someone said something. But he thinks he’s alive and that’s enough for me.” He felt tired, this was a lot to deal with.

“Are you okay, hun, you look pale.” Remy asked.

“I’m just really tired. Today’s been really stressful.” Virgil leaned against him and fell asleep almost immediately.

He dreamed of a screaming void and a vague memory of something he lost.


	15. Dark, Light, and Grey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apathy, Deceit, and Despair discuss Deceit's plan for leaving. The light sides and Virgil move Deceit's pets out of his official room into his new room. Patton kind of accidentally does something he shouldn't have.

Once Devin was told of the situation, Deceit took the chance to slip off to Nathanael's room and scrubbed his skin raw in the shower again. He couldn't stand the feeling of his now husband on him, he hated it. But it was worth it if his idea went as planned. He just needed Mal to trust him. And he would turn it against him.

* * *

Devin leaving his room was something of occasion nowadays. He used to leave so much more often when Rey, Skye, and Dee lived in the dark side. But now Dee was back so he knew he could leave without a chance of Malin taking advantage of it.

And it was fine for about an hour, Deceit had come back downstairs and was talking to Jean now. To avoid Malin, who was asleep on the couch, he bolted right over to them and squirmed uncomfortably.

If Malin woke up, he'd try to flirt with him, the initial reason for constantly disappearing into his room. But Mal didn't and he saw Deceit and Jean texting on Dee's phone.

"What's happening?" Devin asked.

"We're texting Vee. We're making plans to get out of here." Jean explained.

"We're telling him to board up my room as best as possible." Cassidy clarified.

"Wait, you two married again?" He asked softly.

"It's the only way for him to trust me enough to let me not be tied up." Dee told him.

"What's our plan?" Deceit's face got more stern upon hearing Devin's question.

"We're going to talk with Rey and Skye and make sure they don't come back first. Then me and Jean have to file through out divorces right before we leave. I'll be going to the Subconscious to get Nathanael, but you two, Rey, and Skye will be going right to the light side so you're out of danger. I'll get back whenever it's safe to bring Nathanael throught to the light."

"But he's corrupted, Cas."

"I have to at least try." Deceit was adamant. They both had known he would be.

"Then I'm going with you." Jean wasn't offering, he was insisting.

"So am I." Devin agreed. Deceit gave a sigh.

"But you have to promise to get back after. I can't let you two get hurt." He told them.

"We will, just run us through how you plan to get through the Subconscious." Devin assured him.

* * *

Virgil hated this. He hated knowing his boyfriend was married to Malin again. But he did understand, he could understand that Cass needed to do this. This, however, meant he needed to quickly move Dee's snakes out of his room, get out anything meaningful or important, and move it into the room next to it to keep it all safe before boarding up the room.

His wings ached in their restraints, he'd left them in too long again. He'd expected to have let them out yesterday, if only Dee hadn't been taken. He'd expected to take a day to relax and stay in Deceit's new room with Cass and Remy. So, because the ache in them wouldn't stop and he knew if they were achy for too long they'd have a hard time flying any time soon, he let them out.

Coming out of his room with his bat wings not bound down was a nervous process. He didn't want the others to look at him so he just kept on with his task of moving Deceit's important things out with Remy.

Logan and Roman did come by to help but they didn't mention it much, it didn't seem to be an issue until they'd all sealed off Dee's original room and had moved it into the new one next to it.

"Your wings are so pretty. Why don't you show them more often?" Roman's hands hovered around the fragile but strong very much not feathery wings. He hated that they weren't feathery, they looked weird. They definitely weren't pretty.

"They're weird. Most wings have feathers. Mine are just skin and bones, they're weird looking." He assured them but he made no move to put them away, he couldn't, they'd hurt too much.

"I think they're gorgeous, babe." Remy assured him, fingers running up the bones and making the wings flutter slightly with the touch. God, he remembered how good it felt when Remy massaged his wings. He leaned into it and chirped as he settled into the touch.

"He's really half bat, isn't he?" He heard Logan ask.

"Yep, he's a cute bat too." He turned a blushed and chirped at him in annoyance, he hated being called cute. But getting his wings massaged and pet wasn't making him look very threatening so he just gave in and let Remy take care of his wings.

A few hours later, it was quiet enough that they all heard the door open and close.

"Roman, where's Patton?" Virgil asked.

"He said he was going out to the store for something." Roman answered.

"When did he leave? I haven't seen him all day." Logan asked. Wait, if logan hadn't seen him, then something was wrong. Patton and Logan always at least saw each other in the morning when Patton got coffee.

"He went somewhere other than the store then." Remy voiced and got up, taking Virgil with him. Virgil put up his wings to protect him and got in front of Remy so his wings could protect his boyfriend. The four all ventured downstairs to find Patton flaring out new wings that made Virgil halt and gasp. He knew exactly where he'd gone.

Patton's wings puffed up and a few feathers shook out during the process before he looked back at Virgil and everyone. His eyes were pink from tears, he hoped weren't from pain but they probably were.

"Pat, what did you do?" Virgil heard Roman ask the moral side.

"I tried to see if I could find the two not in the dark side but I went a little too far, didn't I?" Patton admitted with a bit of a nervous laugh.

"Patton, you went into the dark side." Virgil alerted him.

"Kiddo, I'll be fine. I just need to make sure I don't hurt them, right?"

"No, you need to groom them. Jeez, stay still, I'll help." Virgil sat by one wing, grooming through loose feathers and made the one wing look new again, although not cleaned given Patton hadn't cleaned them yet. Virgil groomed through the other wing.

Virgil sighed and faceplanted on the couch after telling Patton to go wash them. Patton wanted to help, he knew, but he'd gone too far into the drey area if he'd gotten to the dark side.

And now he had the same animal half the dark sides had.


	16. Waiting Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their plan isn't perfect, but it might just work.

It was a week of planning. Cassidy hated that it took so long but he didn't want Malin catching onto their plan as they made sure it was perfected. They had everything planned out to getting Devin acquainted with Malin's schedule.

This, sadly, meant poor Apathy fell into the schedule too and Malin, of course, decided that he wanted to marry Devin too. But he wasn't as 'perfect' as Deceit and Despair yet so Malin wanted to groom him like he had them before he married him, thankfully.

Since Mal trusted them, though, this gave them the ability to travel to the Imagination not far from the dark side and go for runs to stores without him, though one usually stayed home and it was usually insisted to be Apathy by Malice.

But they didn't complain, they fell into routine and got their plan ready to go.

* * *

Nothing is perfect, perfection doesn't exist.

Jean wanted to believe their plan could be perfect. He truly _wanted_ to believe it was. But Deceit didn't quite account for one thing. Despair had a swift-growing piece that would inevitably tear him apart.

He didn't tell him, it wouldn't matter. Malin would catch on, he always did when Jean had had plans of leaving after Dee did. He would shatter regardless. There were no other sides with a piece fragment and he had nothing else to combine it with. It wouldn't be a whole side, it wouldn't be worth giving life to for it to suffer.

He'd rather shatter with his piece.

* * *

Patton's wings were beautiful. Their colors came in with their first molting and got even brighter aqua blue from their initial pure white. He had caught the idea of flying quite easily with Virgil's teaching. So now they had two sides with flying ability come the need for the plan that was coming.

Devin, Cassidy, and Jean would go into the Subconscious and free Nathanael and then get back to the light side as quickly as possible while Virgil and Patton convinced Skye and Rey to get over the border as quickly as they could so they could shut down the dark side temporarily until they could move their rooms into the Mind Palace.

They were risking their rooms, sure. But they had told him that was fine, they were okay with rebuilding them from the inside out.

But Virgil felt something off, he knew something was wrong but he couldn't pinpoint it. But something was horribly wrong.

* * *

Virgil was stressed. He hadn't bound his wings all week and they were twitchy, Remy could see it. The anxious side knew something was wrong with the plan. Something was going to happen and someone might not make it.

But there was little the figment could quite do now but wait at the border of the dark side, ready to embrace Deceit and get him home as quickly as possible.

But he might make the ultimate decision a figment could if something happened. Roman was tense enough that he knew the time for his decision might be limited. Roman would alert him when Virgil and Patton, as well as Rey and Skye, were back over the border so they had less to wait for.

But he was ready to run across the border if he had to save Deceit from Malice.


	17. Subconsious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three dark sides trek the Subconscious, a dangerous place that houses the morse horrible side of them all, an all-consuming void called Darkness.

Getting out of the house was just a matter of leaving while Malin was asleep. The growing feeling of the piece made his body ache with the horror that he might shatter here in the void.

' _This might be less than ideal._ ' Jean thought and nearly chuckled to himself at the irony of the embodiment of _Despair_  not being sad about his own death being imminent. 

Deceit got them to a clearing where everything suddenly lit up and everything was visible. the misty fog parted and let them through into a deep but lit alcove of the Subconscious.

The Darkness sat in the furthest corner and in its containment that he'd always been in. The darkness of the Void made up for the light in this alcove.

Inside, of course, was Nathanael, surrounded by the darkness that the Void embodied, screaming and crying in an eternal futile attempt to get out.

Deceit almost immediately had tears on his face and he had to stop him from touching him and almost getting consumed by the Darkness like he himself almost had. Devin stopped him from the other side, making sure he didn't rush in and get corrupted too.

Sadly, there was a loud scream from the house, surely the whole Mindscape could hear it.

Malice was awake.

* * *

With the sound of a loud, angry, bellowed screams coming from the dark side, Remy was bolting across the border without a second thought. His bones took to aching at first but he didn't pass out, he wouldn't. Even when he felt animal traits becoming permanent features. Deceit might be in danger. He knew he wasn't alone when he heard Logan and Roman running after him into the dark side.

' _Please be okay._ ' Remy thought.

* * *

Virgil's head snapped up as he heard a scream echo the Mindscape.

That was Malin. This wasn't good. He _knew_ , He _found out_.

Virgil couldn't let them die. He immediately flew like a bullet to the dark side, seeing Logan, Remy, and Roman doing the same from the border and Patton was following him closely and Rey and Skye not far behind Patton, unable to fly but both trying to get there too.

* * *

Just getting to the Subconscious was a humongous task for Deceit, it physically hurt to be so close to holding his son again, but he couldn't. The darkness that surrounded Nathanael would corrupt him. Was it truly worth getting corrupted to get a son who may already be too corrupted to fix?

Parts of the darkness came to vaguely form a humanoid-looking thing. It pointed at Jean.

"You, you're the one." The dark, deep voice that spoke vaguely resembling Thomas' own.


	18. Pieces Of Us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Despair and Darkness get acquainted. Virgil and Malin are in a race to get to the Subconscious.

"You're the one to carry the child." The creaky old voice of the darkness hissed out with boredom in the forefront tone of his vocality.

Jean felt nauseous the second the Darkness pointed at him, but now he was even closer to throwing up. He had been questioning all week if sides could just simply get pregnant if they had no one else to make a new side with.

"Child?" Apathy looked him up and down.

"This one carries the other piece." The old voice boredly told them.

"You'll shatter, Dez!" Apathy exclaimed at him and he flinched as the other side grabbed his arm in worry.

"Come, young one. I have your missing piece." The darkness beckoned.

A misty hand extended from the body of the man. He knew it was stupid, he shouldn't trust him. Apathy was pulling at his hand to stop him. But all his instincts told him that this other side was being truthful. He stopped himself at the last minute.

"I'll take your piece if you give me the young side you've corrupted. Only then. Or else I'll let you shatter too." Despair bargained him.

"Deal." The Void agreed.

The mist of darkness slowly dispersed from Nathanael and the baby got placed into his arms by the careful arms of the Darkness. Apathy and Deceit quickly took Nathanael and held him while still keeping Deceit away. This was his choice to trust this new side.

"Just for that little stunt, though, you get to carry our pieces for the nine months." A misty hand pressed to his stomach.

"Deal." A grey light shone between their connection. The misty appendage left his stomach and the darkness smiled and brushed Jean's hair from his eyes.

"Take care of it for me. That's our kid, Despair." Jean nodded slightly, nauseous.

He put his hands to his stomach through the sweater and, sure enough, his piece had fused with whatever piece the Darkness had given him. This meant his body changed immediately to accommodate the tiny life.

The side was grey, the color had been grey. So that meant Malin now had a different color. The realization that he was actually pregnant was almost bittersweetly slow. He had a baby and no fear of shattering but he had no clue what kind of side he'd just made. It could be horrible like Malin or somewhere between him and the Darkness.

* * *

Getting to the Subconscious and finding that clearing was maybe the hardest thing Virgil had done. It was dark in the Subconscious and the lighted space was hard to find flying through the murky fogged darkness. He landed on stumbly feet seeing Jean and the Darkness glowing. A new side? Jean and the Darkness made a new side?

And Nathanael was cuddled into Devin's arms as Cass looked over their baby. Loyalty was fine despite being corrupted, he was alive and breathing and active. The sclera of his eyes, though, were jet black and his animal traits were tainted melanistic instead of albino like they were before.

Deceit's distressed brown and yellow eyes flashed up at him. He was worried about Nathanael, he didn't look like he used to. He was a bit older, but not even years old. He wasn't seven like they'd expected to have found him. The Darkness had severely slowed his growth.

"Malice knows you left, you can't go that way." Virgil told the three just in time for Malin to appear in the opening of the clearing. The Darkness hissed at him and Deceit pulled Devin and Jean to hide behind the misty figure.

They were far too close to the Unconscious for Virgil to feel like they were safe over there but it was safer there than being closer to Mal. As long as they didn't fall and it seemed like the Darkness would protect them if they did.

Then Malin pulled Virgil close by his left wing from protecting his boyfriend and the other two dark sides. Fingers tearing through the fragile unprotected wing making his left wing blood. A sudden jolt of movement flew through his body as Mal threw him away from the others in order to get to them. He must have hit his head on something, because the next think he knew was complete darkness.


	19. Rewrite The Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malin's found them and he's not happy.

The minute Virgil got yanked away by the wing, Deceit went into full defense, fangs bared and hissing at his twice ex-husband.

"HOW DARE YOU BOTH DIVORCE ME!?"  Malin roared.

Nathanel was feverish from the corruption and the Darkness was, yet again, hiding in its containment to avoid repercussions of the fight.

Cass could see the new holes in Virgil's wings from where he was on the floor of the lit up clearing. They would heal with diligent care, but he was unconscious and his forehead was a bit bloody. That was his boyfriend!

He was livid the second he saw Virgil get pulled backwards but knowing he wasn't conscious was possibly one of the most infuriating things Malin had ever done to the anxious side that Dee knew about.

The other sides started slowly arriving, sans Patton, perhaps simply lost or too slow, he didn't know.

Mal was quick to attack the newly arriving sides and Remy to where Roman ordered injured Logan, Skye, Rey, Remy to go back to the light side to heal faster.

Virgil was slowly getting back up, wings twitching and eventually he hauled himself up to his unsteady feet and he and Roman were slowly driving Mal closer and closer to the Unconscious.

He kept Jean near himself still even as he saw the other sides slowly arriving to the clearing, Roman just immediately drawing his sword and holding Mal at sword point.

Then Mal looked over at them from the two sides he was currently fighting and his face turned up in fury.

"You left me! Both of you! I'll kill you!" Mal roared and charged at them.

Jean wrestled from Deceit's arms and shoved the two away from him and toward Roman and Vrgil, getting them and Nathanael away from the cliff behind them, closer to Virgil and Roman caught them with little hesitation to protect them and kept them tightly close to themselves.

It took a minute to realize that Jean just took the fall for them.

Jean got barrelled over by Malin, who was nearly two times his size to save them.

_And he fell right over into the Unconscious._

* * *

It all just happened too fast. Malice charging at Cass, Devin, and Jean. Jean shoving the other two sides at him. The sudden fall.

Virgil couldn't catch up fast enough to see a blue blur immediately follow Jean and Malin into the darkness. But he knew Logan had hauled Remy, Skye, Remy back to the border to let them heal from the fight.

* * *

Falling was peaceful. The air around him, the knowledge that he'd never have to deal with Malin ever again. He could die like this. Sure, it was slightly painful with the impact with Malin that had sent him over the cliff, but that was bearable with the knowledge of never having to dea with anything ever again.

This was peaceful if Jean didn't focus on the incoming impact.

He felt arms grab him and the drop stopped. The darkness around him and whoever this was was too dark to see, but he could see the light of the Subconscious. He heard the sound of wings.

He passed out from shock before his thoughts became coherent again.

* * *

The second Patton touched down to the ground with Jean lying limp against him, the Darkness took its misty human form and ghosted its hands to check on him, seemingly with worry in it's demeanor. His hands ran over Despair's clothes stomach, slightly odd for him to do but Patton let him so long as he wasn't actively corrupting Despair in his arms.

The other side let out a sigh of, seemingly, relief that Despair was okay besides the shock. The melancholy side looked fragile though and small, though that was probably because he was so short.

Currently Roman was purifying the corruption from Nathanael and Deceit was finally getting over the shock of so much happening at once and was immediately trying to gently wake Jean up. 

* * *

Slowly, very slowly, Despair woke up. Everything was groggy and hazy with shock but he did wake up and felt over his stomach, taking inventory of anything hurt and gave a small smile feeling that at least the baby was okay.

He didn't stay conscious long but it was enough to make sure of that, at least that. He needed to at least know the baby was okay with his stupid instinct to take the impact himself.


	20. Just Keep Breathing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone goes home and calms down after everything that’s happened.

Trudging back to the Conscious and the light side to meet Logan, Remy, Rey, and Skye was a task. Jean was unconscious again so Roman had opted to carry him, Virgil had to fix his wing the best he could to keep himself able to heal it on its own, Deceit carried Nathanael to keep him safe.

Devin ran to his boyfriends the second they were able to see Rey and Skye. Five years apart, they deserved to have a dramatic reunion.

Getting back to the light side and Mind Palace were easy compared to what they'd done and the trek through the Subconscious and Dark Side. Rey, Skye, Remy, and Logan had healed enough that they were fine with only mild support from Virgil or Patton.

They all collapsed into a cuddle pile on the floor in the commons. Jean was asleep between Roman and Logan getting as much love as possible with Skye and Rey having checked on both him and the baby, Deceit was in the middle of Virgil and Remy with Nathanael bouncing in his lap, and Patton was extending his wings to cover both small families.

Skye, Devin, and Rey had huddled into their own little group and just fell asleep that way. It was cute to see them reunite.

Virgil and Devin passed out rather quickly, then Skye and Rey had slowly fallen asleep from the pain medications they'd taken so they wouldn't be in pain while they healed, then Roman and Logan fell asleep. then it was just Patton, Cassidy, and Remy when Emile came over to check on everyone and ended up against Patton in the cuddle pile, though neither fell asleep.

Deceit only moved again when Nathanael got fussy from hunger. Deceit gave him his old favorite, peaches.

"Look a him, he's cute, Dee." Remy finally spoke up and leaned against Deceit's back.

"He's precious." Deceit smiled watching over his son eating.

"I guess I'm kind of a step-dad now?" Deceit looked to Virgil asleep with Despair safely tucked into his arms still.

"You are." Deceit leaned back into his boyfriend.

"I'm glad my step-son is as cute as his dads." Deceit smiled and leaned his head against Remy's neck.

"Are you okay? You went in there to save me." 

"It's weird to be part iguana. But I'll survive, babe. I couldn't just leave you there."

"You didn't even know you'd survive, did you? You risked yourself for me."

"And Vee."

"I'm just so happy you're still alive. That we're _all_ still alive. We were so close to losing Jean. He fell over the Unconscious." Deceit looked over the small orange-clad side cuddled between his own adoptive parents.

"He'll be okay once he can snap from the shock." Remy assured him.

"I hope so." He watched Nathanael fuss and went to change him and came back to lay against Remy again in the near same position.

Nathanael was nearly asleep in his arms and Remy was in the process of falling asleep finally too. Deceit leaned closer and let them both fall asleep, Remy against his back and side and Nathanael resting on his legs before he let Patton and Emile take him so he had no fear of dropping him while he was asleep.

Only then did he allow himself be taken by sleep on his own part.


End file.
